"For two decades now I've been awaiting a book explaining computers and
their social consequences to literate readers without using any
unnecessary jargon or pedantry -- or math. I wanted such a book to lend
to all those friends who've pestered me about computers and to all the
computer science students who've asked me about computers over the
years. I particularly wanted a book that I could buy for my father,
who's an accountant of the old school, to explain something of the
mysterious world I live in."

Gregory J. E. Rawlins, who teaches artificial intelligence at Indiana
University, got tired of waiting for that book and decided to write it
himself. In Moths to the Flame he takes us on a humorous yet
thought-provoking tour of the world wrought by modern technology, a
technology,
he points out, that is rooted deep inside the military: a technology
that when applied to everyday life, may have startling results. Unlike
space technology, today's technological race won't simply bring us
Tang-flavored Velcro.

Rawlins educates by entertaining. His stories and anecdotes enliven
and surprise us while increasing our awareness of technology itself as a
player in the political and commercial climate of our times. In our
headlong rush toward networked humanity Rawlins raises serious concerns
about our future jobs and our future wars: we can figure out what kind
of job to get today if we know where technology is taking us tomorrow.

The book's first four chapters explore the worlds of privacy, virtual
reality, publishing, and computer networks, while the last four focus on
social issues such as warfare, jobs, computer catastrophes, and the
future itself. Throughout unusual, eye-opening analogies and historical
comparisons -- from Egyptian hieroglyphics to the sewing machine to the
codebreakers of World War II -- give us a context for the computer age,
showing how new technologies have always bred intertwined hope and
resistance.

Provocative yet balanced and sophisticated, Moths to the Flame is an
indispensable guidebook to the future: a Baedeker for the Brave New
World.